The next day, Lynn woke up in a partitioned room of the laboratory. The first thing he did was find Gregor, who was buried in blueprints and materials.
Lynn had spent several days refining the Death Knight, and the old man had grown extremely dissatisfied. He needed some proper soothing.
"Mentor, regarding the stability issue of 'Negative-Energy Backflow into the Soul Core,' I racked my brains all night and thought we might try adding a 'Phase-Shift Buffer Rune Array' to the energy circuit, like this..."
Lynn picked up a discarded bone fragment and smoothly carved an intricate composite rune structure onto it.
Gregor was deeply gratified to hear that Lynn had put so much thought into solving his problem.
At first, he thought Lynn's idea was overly naive, but as he listened, his cloudy eyes gradually lit up.
He snatched the bone fragment away, his fingers rapidly tracing over it. "Phase shift... buffer... Brilliant!"
"Although it will increase the construction's complexity, it can indeed greatly reduce the risk of the soul core being overloaded by instantaneous pressure! Boy, how is that brain of yours made?!"
Lynn chuckled. After completely scanning the general knowledge on the library's first floor, his Analysis function had become even more powerful.
The solutions it provided were no longer overly "idealistic." Through the panel's deep analysis, he could always find tricky but feasible breakthroughs in problems that seemed unsolvable.
Gregor knew nothing about that.
All he saw was that this young apprentice could always find wildly imaginative yet practical breakthroughs in difficult problems that had plagued him for a long time.
It made him all the more glad for the seemingly casual decision he had made back then.
Lynn's performance had rapidly elevated his standing in Gregor's eyes from "a dreamer with a little cleverness" to "an assistant of immense research value."
In his excellent mood, Gregor finally stopped restricting Lynn to merely the scraps surrounding the [Death Metamorphosis Ritual].
With a grand wave of his hand, he generously allowed Lynn access to other sealed research notes and results in his laboratory, claiming that it was "to broaden his horizons and inspire more ideas."
Lynn finally had the opportunity to examine the "restricted" knowledge displayed in the laboratory.
He fully activated his scanning function, recording volume after volume of advanced knowledge into his own library.
[Research on Energy Circuit Overload and Stability]
[Negative-Energy Particle Inert-State Activation Technique]
[Conjecture on the Reverse Conversion of Multi-Attribute Energy Particles]
[External Soul-Energy Circulation System Design]
These were, after all, research results from a Formal Wizard who had immersed himself in the field for over a century. They were somewhat too "advanced" for Lynn.
He was only a minor Wizard Apprentice. For now, he had no involvement with matters this profound.
However, Lynn could select useful branches from this knowledge to enrich his foundation and improve his strength.
He could also use this knowledge to choose suitable Apprentice-Level Sorcery, and even future "ring-level" wizardry, for development, strengthening his means.
After recording for roughly half an hour, Lynn saw that the speed was simply too slow and decided to set it aside for now.
Since he lived in the laboratory anyway, he could scan while meditating at night. Neither would interfere with the other.
He might as well do something meaningful during the day.
There was a major class today on advancing from First-Class Apprentice to Second-rank Wizard Apprentice, but Lynn had already heard Gregor explain the key points of advancement.
As long as his Mental Power reached twenty points and he successfully constructed an Apprentice-Level Sorcery, he would officially become a Second-rank Wizard Apprentice.
His innate Mental Power was already considerably higher than that of other apprentices. This naturally high Mental Power allowed him to cultivate faster than others; the higher one's innate Mental Power, the more efficient one's meditation.
Other apprentices saw their Mental Power increase slowly, so they needed potions or special methods to improve it. (Such as fusing with or Devouring soul essences, or enduring a Vengeful Spirit's Psychic Scream to temper their Mental Power.)
However, whether potions or other methods, all of them caused "mental contamination" in wizards.
They might charge ahead in the early stages due to their rapid Mental Power growth, only to be dumbfounded when it came time to advance to Formal Wizard.
Lynn, however, could pass through the apprentice stage without any potion assistance.
His naturally high Mental Power gave him superior memory and energy, greater fault tolerance when performing tasks such as carving runes, and allowed him to master all kinds of knowledge more quickly.
He also had greater resistance against spells such as mental attacks and curses, while making himself harder to locate through wizardry divination.
These advantages would make his path as a wizard smoother and easier, while also giving him an edge in secondary professions such as potion-making, alchemy, and runes.
For now, however, Lynn intended to focus on accumulating knowledge and cultivating. He would raise his realm first.
As for other "secondary professions," he could put them aside for now. There would be plenty of time when he was less busy.
After leaving the laboratory, Lynn headed straight for the Task Hall, intending to continue stockpiling resources.
Whether accelerating his cultivation, conducting research and experiments, or advancing to Formal Wizard in the future, none of it could be done without resource support.
Upon arriving at the Task Hall, Lynn expertly began browsing the tasks.
He specifically filtered for "knowledge consultation" tasks posted by First-Class and Second-Class Apprentices, with rewards between five and fifteen Contribution Points.
The tasks within this range involved Zero-Level Cantrips, and Lynn was confident he could handle them.
Tasks posted by Third-Class Apprentices had too great a risk of failure, so he would not accept them for the time being.
As usual, he started with the easy ones. He first accepted a task from a First-Class female apprentice troubled by the stability of [Faint Illusion].
The beautiful Wraith attendant contacted the task issuer and said that she would arrive shortly.
A moment later, the two met in the Task Hall.
The female apprentice was slightly stunned when she saw Lynn, apparently not expecting the person who had accepted the task to also be a First-Class Apprentice.
"You're really young..."
She showed no contempt whatsoever. Instead, she addressed him respectfully and appeared exceptionally polite.
She then followed Lynn to a corner of the Task Hall and took out the Witchcraft Model she had prepared in advance.
Lynn had this wizardry recorded already, so there was no need to freeload. Moreover, after Analysis and Optimization, it was much stronger than the basic version.
After examining the female apprentice's crude Witchcraft Model, Lynn found many issues. If all of them were resolved, this wizardry could be comprehensively improved.
However, he had only been paid to improve its stability. The other issues were separate paid services, so he naturally would not meddle unnecessarily.
"Your problem is that your Mental Power output isn't smooth enough. When constructing the image's outline, try imagining your Mental Power as a trickling stream rather than letting it pour out all at once."
Lynn simply sketched a diagram of Mental Power flow onto a bone plate.
The female apprentice immediately understood after seeing it. When she followed his method, the illusion she formed indeed became much more stable.
She looked in delighted surprise at the illusion beside her and sincerely praised him.
"Thank you so much. I've never met a First-Class Apprentice as knowledgeable as you. Your guidance was more useful than half a month of fumbling around on my own!"
Lynn merely nodded slightly. There was no need for flattering words; she just needed to honestly pay the Contribution Points.
This female apprentice was fairly trustworthy. She went directly to the task window and settled the task payment.
Very soon, eight Contribution Points had been credited to his account, and his Nameplate recorded another completed task.
This was far better than jobs like cleaning sewers.
You could work yourself to the bone for half a day and only earn one Contribution Point. At that rate, he would have to save until the end of time to gather enough advancement resources.
Before you continue